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Science 23 February 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5252, pp. 1095 - 1098
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5252.1095
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Reports

Self-Assembling Dendrimers

Steven C. Zimmerman, (1) Fanwen Zeng, David E. C. Reichert, Sergei V. Kolotuchin

Hydrogen bond-mediated self-assembly is a powerful strategy for generating large structures from smaller subunits. The synthesis of molecules containing two isophthalic acid units covalently attached to a rigid aromatic spacer is described. By normal pairing of carboxylic acids into hydrogen-bonded dimers, these molecules self-assemble in organic solvents to form either a series of linear aggregates or a cyclic hexamer. These molecules were linked to the core of a family of polyether dendrimers, which caused the hexamer to be formed preferentially. The stability of the hexamer depended on the generation number of the dendrimer. The largest of these hydrogen-bonded macromolecular assemblies is roughly disk-shaped with a 9-nanometer diameter and a 2-nanometer thickness. Its size and molecular mass (34,000 daltons) are comparable to that of small proteins.

Department of Chemistry, 600 South Mathews Avenue, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
(1) To whom correspondence should be addressed.


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